Farmworkers cover rows of strawberry plants with plastic at the Ramos Farm's fields along Rampart Road in Watsonville.

Written by

Raju Chebium and Erin Kelly
Gannett Washington Bureau

Farmers from California to New York struggled to find enough people to harvest their crops this season, a shortage they blame on federal bureaucratic requirements and a sharp decline in migrant laborers willing to cross the U.S.-Mexican border.

State laws designed to crack down on migrant laborers, who make up the bulk of the nation's seasonal farmworkers, are also to blame, agriculture officials say.

"We see shortages in all parts of the country," said Kristi Boswell, director of congressional relations for the American Farm Bureau. "Farmers are struggling with fewer bodies out there ...